


Slack jawed, in front of the tv

by cuneifire



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Drabble, Gen, TV News
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2019-07-02 03:58:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15788490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuneifire/pseuds/cuneifire
Summary: Colors and letters pass him by. The screen keeps his attention fixed to itself. Narcissism. Relevance. Self-importance. It’s all the same.





	Slack jawed, in front of the tv

**Author's Note:**

> I am...not quite sure what this is. It has a message but the precise nature of said message fails me. maybe you can figure it out. idk.

The colors fly past him. The headlines are unimportant, really, what matters is the colors.

 _‘Another school shooting in New York today. Word has come about of the shooter...’_ Bright, bright yellow lines, words and screenings. The killer’s face is shrouded in a red background. A kingdom of blood. Another drop in the bucket of murder. A Tuesday.

They show the killer’s face. They always do that.

But the colours are pretty.

He keeps his fingers clenched profusely around the remote. It’s his control, his lifeboat in the endless sea of content and faded realities that flow past him. Currents. Riptides. Unrepentant tidal waves.

CNN. Fox News. MSNBC. NBC. CBS. Faces fade into the background, the announcer’s whittled voices descend into white noise. What matters is the colors. The colors, the pretty pretty colors that paint the screen and make all the blood pretty again. Pretty. He likes the repetition.

His hand shifts over the remote control. Atomic control commission. Presses another button. Doesn’t matter which one.  Make the news go away. The real world- if it’s that _(it’s not)_ \- can fade.

_ijust. Want._

There’s some other part to that sentence but he’s forgotten it.

_I want._

That’s the important part.

A new channel shows up. Not news, the colors aren’t as pretty. But still, there’s colors. Action. Romance. Thrills. Everything you could ever want, right here in this 42-inch screen.

The colors bombard his vision, whir past him. America blinks.

He observes. His knee, pale bent over the sagging couch. His neck. Cracked and aching.

Just for a second, the window is not so far.

But it’s getting smaller. Closing, closing, closing.

He looks away. He doesn’t need to see it. No point, really. The inevitable is inevitable is the inevitable.

So he looks back at the screen. He likes the program now. It’s perfect. Perfect perfect perfect perfect. So beautifully in color.

The pain in his brain filters to the back of his mind as he stares, slack jawed. Watches. Is led. Consumes.

America sees in color, but sometimes he wishes it was still black-and-white.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and feedback are always appreciated!


End file.
